BRIDGEPORT >> Ally Rosenblum took a few extra moments as she reflected on the countless amount of memories she had with former high school and AAU teammate Katie Lou Samuelson until one unforgettable story popped into her head.

“She is hilarious, she is the life of everything,” said Rosenblum, a freshman forward for UCLA which faces four-time defending national champion UConn on Saturday in the third round of the NCAA tournament. “She is always making everybody laugh. I think when we played on a club team together, we were warming up in layup lines together. I went to shoot a layup and I tripped over the floor over nothing. There were a bunch of college coaches around and she came right behind me and she tripped over that same line. We were like, ‘hey, everybody watch out for that line.’ We are very clumsy so it was just really funny.”

The two close friends didn’t have many missteps either at the high school or AAU level as the winning came at a fast and furious pace.

“Ally and I have known each other for a long time on the club teams and everything so it is cool to see somebody that you kind of grew up with,” said Samuelson, UConn’s leading scorer. “I saw her develop with her being younger than me on my high school team and kind of seeing where we both ended up now.”

They were teammates for three seasons at California powerhouse Mater Dei.

Three of the 16 teams left in the women’s Division I tournament after the subregionals feature Mater Dei alums, including Stanford All-American candidate Karlie Samuelson, who is Katie Lou’s older sister.

“It just prepared me tremendously,” Rosenblum said. “Coach (Kevin) Kiernan, Coach (Jesse) Vargas and just the whole staff, our practices are run like college practices, we’ve had so many amazing players come out of Mater Dei that I think that level has always been there, the standard they have always held us to.”

Rosenblum is not shocked that Samuelson is on the verge of breaking UConn’s single-season mark for 3-pointers set by fellow Mater Dei alum Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis.

“She has always been a great shooter,” Rosenblum said. “I think she has started as a great shooter and now has molded her game into being a more versatile player. She does it all so she has always been a great shooter, that whole family has been great at shooting 3s.”

Homage to Bobcats

UConn coach Geno Auriemma’s press conference on Friday was not going to end until he revealed a piece of clothing he was rather proud to slip on.

Just as the final words were coming out of his mouth, Auriemma unzipped his jacket to show the assembled media the Quinnipiac T-shirt he was wearing.

“I’m just glad we’re not in their bracket, because I’ll tell you what, I wouldn’t want to be in their bracket,” Auriemma said. “They remind me of our ’91 team. I watched them play the other day. There was about 10 minutes left, eight minutes left in the game (against host Miami). I remember saying, ‘I think they’re going to win.’ I couldn’t believe it. Everybody in the place was going nuts. I thought, ‘oh, my God, this is like 1991, replaying itself.’ And Trish (Fabbri), that potty-mouth coach of theirs, if I ever said some of the stuff that she said, I’d get crucified. I told her that, too. Catholic school girl like herself? She should be ashamed of herself.”

Auriemma recalls the colorful language when Fabbri worked at Auriemma’s camp many years ago. He also helped put a good word in when she was one of the candidates for the Quinnipiac job.

“Geno has been such a mentor for me going way back,” Auriemma said. “He helped me in this process, get a job at Quinnipiac a long, long time ago, 22 years ago. He reached out as soon as we won, and so complimentary of what we were able to accomplish over the weekend.

“The fact that he is wearing our shirt in support of our team in this tournament at this time, just so thankful, and very grateful for his support and UConn women’s basketball’s support of Quinnipiac’s women’s basketball, and the two teams in Connecticut here representing women’s basketball in the Sweet 16.”

Coombs honored

Coombs, who also was named the Gatorade state player of the year in Georgia, averaged 16.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 4.2 steals as she led the Wesleyan School to the Georgia Private School 1A title as a senior.